Editing Constant Lambert (section)

==Broader cultural interests==
An expert on painting, sculpture, and literature as well as music,<ref>{{cite journal | last=Palmer| first=Christopher| title=Review of ''Constant Lambert'' by Richard Shead | journal=Music & Letters | volume=55 | issue=2 | pages=241–242 |date=April 1974| doi=10.1093/ml/LV.2.241}}</ref> Lambert differed from most of his fellow English composers of the time in his perception of the importance of jazz. He responded positively to the music of [[Duke Ellington]]. His embrace of music outside the 'serious' repertoire is illustrated by his book ''Music Ho!'' (1934),<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Lambert | title = Music Ho! | url = https://fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20090115 | access-date = 26 June 2011}}</ref> subtitled "a study of music in decline", which remains one of the wittiest, if most highly opinionated, volumes of music criticism in the English language.

Lambert's father, while born in Russia and of American heritage, viewed himself as first and foremost an Australian. Constant was always conscious of his Australian connections, although he never visited that country.  For the first performance of his Piano Concerto (1931), rather than select a British-born pianist, Lambert chose the Sydney-born, [[Brisbane]]-trained [[Arthur Benjamin]] to play the solo part. Despite his disapproval of homosexuality he formed a good working relationship with Benjamin's fellow Australian [[Robert Helpmann]]. Afterwards he entrusted yet another Australian musician, [[Gordon Watson (pianist)|Gordon Watson]], with the task of playing the virtuoso piano part at the première of his last ballet, ''[[Tiresias (ballet)|Tiresias]]''.<ref>[http://www.graemeskinner.id.au/LAMBERTpianoconcerto.html Graeme Skinner, musicologist] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409140647/http://graemeskinner.id.au/LAMBERTpianoconcerto.html |date=9 April 2013 }}</ref>